‘SKYFALL’ RISES

Mendes’ weighty but playful film honors the James Bond legacy while charging forward

“Skyfall”

Rating: PG-13 | When: Opens today | Where: Wide release

Running time: 2 hours, 23 minutes

★★★½

After 50 years on the big screen, James Bond was bound to show his age. In “Skyfall,” the reinvigorated 23rd installment in the beloved spy franchise, Bond (Daniel Craig in his third appearance in the role) is most certainly off his game — out of shape, outsmarted and burdened by baggage from his past. But if there’s one thing director Sam Mendes’ (“Revolutionary Road”) take on Bond proves, it’s that we’re more than willing to forgive Bond’s weaknesses, including the 2008 dud “Quantum of Solace,” as long as his movies strike that quintessential balance of outrageous intrigue, sex appeal and escapist fun that made him such an enduring screen legend in the first place.

You can’t celebrate a golden anniversary without looking back, and Mendes and screenwriters John Logan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade pay worthwhile tribute to Bond’s legacy, while still moving the franchise forward into some unprecedented territory. Out of the gate, we’re jolted with the first two notes of the vintage Bond theme, then dropped right into a spectacular, totally impossible opening sequence that has Bond chasing a bad guy who stole a top-secret computer hard drive holding the identities of every NATO agent embedded inside a terrorist ring, through the old city of Istanbul. On foot, on motorcycles, on top of a speeding train, it seems nothing can stop our invincible spy, until a desperate order by his trusted commander, M (Judi Dench), accidentally takes him out, leaving Bond feeling betrayed by the one person he trusted.

Don’t start shouting spoiler. This all happens in the beginning the movie. (And did you really think James Bond would go out like that?) But Bond’s spirit for service is pretty much dead after M’s cold tactics. It isn’t until cyber-terrorist Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), who also has a personal bone to pick with M, hacks into MI6’s computer system and blows up the headquarters that Bond begrudgingly returns to track him down. Even with the help of his new gadget geek Q (Ben Whishaw, smug yet endearing in his repartee with Craig), Silva outsmarts Bond at every turn — even tempting him with desertion — as he inches toward vengeance on his true target.

It all sounds very dramatic, and it could easily have become so with the film’s weighty themes of obsolescence and maternal betrayal, and the fact that Craig is, and remains, the darkest member of the Bond stable. But Mendes and crew create just as much nostalgic fun as they do angst, beginning with Bardem’s villain, a bizarre concoction of smarm, psychosis and comedy relief. He also has the honor of being the first man to make Bond squirm with sexual advances.

Battling against age and irrelevance in a world of high-tech espionage, Craig’s Bond keeps his signature grit, but the film’s playfulness gives him more opportunity to lighten up, especially when it comes to the Bond tradition. From the surreal opening credits that blend sleek, modern styling with a vintage ’60s flair, to the cameos by some iconic Bond gadgets (and yes, the car), “Skyfall” is as much a joyful trip down memory lane as it is a 21st-century Bond adventure.